Iraq: Kurdish girl stoned to death, mob films it on cameraphones

Cellphone videos that depict a teenage girl being stoned to death by a crowd surfaced online last week. Statements on the Kurdish website jebar.info claim the incident took place in Mosul, Iraq, and that the girl was Du'a Khalil Aswad, a 17-year old Kurd who was being killed for having had a relationship with a Sunni Muslim boy in a nearby town. These same online accounts indicate that some of the same members of the crowd who were stoning her to death were simultaneously documenting the act on their mobile phones:

In a short mobile video clip which appears to have been taken by locals at seen of the murder, the girl is seen being ambushed on her way home by a group of up to 1000 men who were waiting for her to return; the men killed her in the most brutal way possible, by throwing large stones on her head. The following clips show that while she is alive and crying for help she is taunted and kicked in her stomach until someone finishes her off by throwing a large stone on her face.

From the clips it appears that the girl was first stripped naked to symbolize that she had dishonored her family and her Yezidi religion. She is lying on the road naked while her smashed face is covered with blood and still breathing.

.3gp video files (warning: contains extremely graphic violence) and account at kurdishaspect.com. I see related reports at Daily Mail and Foxnews.com, but there's nothing online at sources I'd consider more reputable -- so I don't know how reliable the reported details of this incident are.

According to the online reports that do exist, these phonecam videos were uploaded to YouTube also. But a quick search on YouTube now shows: "This video has been removed due to terms of use violation."

AP mentions a similar story of the incident, so what happened seems to be established. As a bit of an update, the article is mainly about how a gunman executed a bus full of Yazidis in response to the stoning of the girl. Vicious circle.

At least 23 have been killed in retaliatory violence: Link to Amnesty International statement. Peaceful protest rallies against the violence took place in Erbil: Link to blog account.

I Come from kurdistan (Iraq) from a Muslim background I married someone outside of my culture, Hoever, I was one of the lucky few. My family supported my dicission and now love me, my husband and my kids more than anything in the world. I cannot explain the anger and fury that goes on in my mind when I saw this video for the first time. I have two beautiful daughters and can not imagine doing nothing while someone tries to hurt them let alone kill them. It is people and incidents like these that give our people a bad name.
I urge you not to think that we are all savages like those who stood there and watched that beautiful young girl get beaten and stoned to death. It was just as much of a shock to us as the rest of the wold.

I am a woman! I am a 21 year old girl who felt appalled and disturbed after watching this gruesome video. How could these men take the life of a young girl? I simply cannot get over what I have observed! It makes me feel incompetent for not having the ability to speak up my mind and let the world know how horrifying individuals, specifically those of the Middle East, could be. I donâ€™t want to generalize since I know that not all of Middle Eastern individuals are shockingly mad. However, it disturbs me that a young girl was killed, no I take that back, a girl was slaughtered by what looked like a house of demented and uncontrolled men. I too was shocked and cried after looking at this video because it captures how the life of a woman is taken away by uninhibited animals. The life of a baby, child, boy, girl, women, and even men should not be taken away that easily even if he/she doesnâ€™t follow specific cultural patterns. Moments like this make me refer back to my religion and question my own God. Where were you my Lord while this young girl suffered and needed you the most? I realize, however, that my God has put this video through my path to create a state of consciousness into my mind. He wants me to be aware of what is occurring to individuals living, not only in the Middle East, but all over the world. I understand that He wants me to do something and stop future murders. I truly want to do something and speak up and let the world know how cruel people can be. I want to speak my mind!!! I want to help others and be someone in life!!! I want to be that person that creates a sense of consciousness into the minds of everyone in the world. As well as creating consciousness into the minds of ignorant and horrifying animals as the ones who killed this innocent 17 year old girl!!!